Norwood Photography

Photography and videography

norwoodphotos — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 07:19:18 +0000

Someone told me about a daily drawing on the internet. Every day GoPro.com gives one person one of everything they make. They make a neat little point of view camera. Wearable, high def video camera. So I’ve been faithfully entering the contest every day with a daily reminder set on my calendar. And finally my name was drawn. Sure enough, the gear arrived as advertised and I was amazed at the huge box of goodies. The camera does not really instill confidence that it is a serious video unit but a quick trip out to the yard dispelled that idea. It’s an amazing little unit, with a waterproof case good to 180 feet down and enough mounting options to satisfy anyone. They even sent a surfboard mounting unit! And to my amazement the camera does stills and time lapse too.

I played around with my new toy for a couple of weeks with an eye toward an upcoming event where I might put it to a good test – a white water rafting trip to Maupin, Oregon on the Deschutes River. Now there is no way I was going to get in a boat in white water – I shoot pictures from the shore – but I enlisted a great volunteer in Eric who was going to be guiding one of the rafts. Eric had a helmet and last Friday we mounted the camera (it came with a helmet mounting rig) and he set off with 6 teens in his raft headed down the Deschutes River. Cut to the chase – the camera performed flawlessly. With the included second battery pack it lasted the entire 3 or 4 hours on the river with a dump of a 16 gig SDHC card mid-trip. The camera was set to record HD video, 720p at 60 frames/second. A quick look at the results and I was convinced this camera is not a toy. It does an amazing job. While it is capable of full 1080p HD the memory used at that setting is beyond what I could deal with. As it was the trip resulted in 22+ gig of video. That’s a ton of data to edit in iMovie but I’m deep into it now.

Some sample output from the trip can be seen here – Deschutes Conga Line

And a shot of Eric hard at work shooting yet to be edited video – that’s him in the back of the raft:

Hopefully I’ll be posting more material from the HD Hero from www.GoPro.com.

Fishing with the osprey

norwoodphotos — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:35:27 +0000

Beth and I ended up at Horseshoe Lake, Woodland, Washington one day last week. The shore along the parking lot had quite a few fishermen relaxing in one of the very rare sunny days we’ve seen this year (not warm, but sunny). While shooting some skateboarders just off the parking lot I was surprised to see a large shadow pass over me. Recognizing it as a BIG BIRD I found there were a group (family?) of osprey also fishing. When I spotted one of them make a pass at a stringer of fish one of the fisherman had tethered near the shore I thought this had to be investigated. They are marvelous creatures to watch, all business. And with a mostly clear sky behind them impossible to resist.

I found the very rapid descent nearly impossible to track with the camera but will definitely get back for some practice. But after surfacing unsuccessful he shook the water off and took back to the air.

Cannon Beach

norwoodphotos — Wed, 18 May 2011 01:07:10 +0000

We made a quick trip to Cannon Beach last week and had the joy of bringing Fidget with us…. He weathered the ride over quite well with only a half dozen or so ‘Are we there yet?’ questions. When we finally got there and got the business taken care of (Beth was dropping off more paintings for the Whitebird Gallery) we went for walk on the beach. It was quite windy and not very warm but the sun was shining and that was terrific.

Fidget wanted a peek through the scope. Unfortunately it was full of water

Beth caught Fidget with me walking down the beach.

And the locals were out keeping an eye on things.

Lovely weather for ….

norwoodphotos — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:45:26 +0000

Actually the weather has limited my photography a bit – yes, I am a fair weather photographer. Unless it’s soccer….
So I’ve taken this time (actually I believe it’s been 23 straight days of rain) to re-edit some of my older work to see if I’ve learned anything. Photoshop CS5 is a rather amazing set of tools allowing all sorts of image manipulation. Here are a couple of older shots taken on a day when the weather was actually about what it’s been lately. Not much has been done to them – cleaned up the background, and since they were shot at ISO1600 I reduced the noise a bit. Subject matter is fitting I think.

The wildlife in this area is a constant source of entertainment, and often amazement.

A working landscape

norwoodphotos — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:21:13 +0000

We have our share of fog of late. Took a quick trip out to Vancouver Lake and swung around toward the port on the way home. This image is a 3 shot pano put together in Photoshop CS5. It reminded me of the AT-AT Walkers in Star Wars.

Strange birds appearing

norwoodphotos — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 03:41:30 +0000

Our backyard bird feeder, always a great source of viewing pleasure for us, has attracted a new type of bird…..

No less fun to watch but with a different level of appetite.

More soccer in the Northwest

norwoodphotos — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 07:34:32 +0000

It has been a strange weather winter this year. We are seeing lots of cold weather and rain. This weekend was the first ‘dry’ weekend in quite a while And it wasn’t just dry – the sun came out. Eventually.

This shot from the beginning of a 9:00 AM soccer game at Doc Harris field in Camas. It’s a great stadium, just completely redone. But the fog seems to be generated in the woods at the far end of the field and then rolls onto the field. Conditions were prime for the fog this weekend.

The sun did start to come out and eventually burned off the fog. The transition provided some interesting photography.

I’m still appreciating the Canon 7D. The sun allowed me to appreciate the 2X extender on the 70-200/2.8 IS.

Damp around the edges

norwoodphotos — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:33:01 +0000

Saturday’s soccer game was one of the more interesting so far. While the play was as good or better than usual the weather added a very interesting twist. It was cold and wet.

To say the least…

Did I mention it was wet?

Just a pretty picture?

norwoodphotos — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 23:38:47 +0000

While many may consider this just another pretty picture of a pretty young lady, for the photographer in me it points out a couple of things of interest – at least to me.

The picture was taken with natural light, indoors, with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 28-75/2.8 lens, wide open. Again, nothing unusual but what is amazing is that it was shot at ISO 3200. Minimal post processing was done. Isn’t technology great?

Cleona Southern Norwood – my mom

norwoodphotos — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:28:02 +0000

Cleona Southern Norwood
July 4, 1923 – September 7, 2010

Cleona was born in Saratoga Springs, NY on July 4, 1923 to Jesse Lewis Southern and Martha Fayon Southern. She died September 7, 2010 in Beavercreek, OR. Cleona worked as an executive secretary for Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, West Milton, NY, General Electric, Melbourne, FL, and Garret Air Research, Sandusky, OH. Upon her retirement she moved to Oregon to be near her son.

She was preceded in death by one brother, Francis Southern and 3 sisters, Jean Camarro, Florence Hurley, and Hazel Hurley, all of Saratoga Springs, N Y.

She is survived by her son David N Norwood (wife Elizabeth Sumner) of Camas, WA and 2 grandchildren, Mark Norwood (Tami), Vancouver, WA, and Amy Norwood Pearson (Paul), Salmon Creek, WA, 7 great grandchildren, Lindsey, Timothy, Isaiah, and Jeremiah Norwood, Victoria, Benjamin, and David Pearson.

There will be no public services. Brown’s Funeral Home and Cremation Services in Camas, WA has been entrusted with arrangements.